Tag: animals

By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore In a new study, researchers in the United States and Europe propose three measures—capping antibiotic use in farm animals, imposing a fee for veterinary use of antibiotics, and limiting meat intake—that, together, can reduce the use of antibiotics in food animals by up to 80 percent by 2030. Antibiotic resistance results from antibiotics overuse Overuse of antibiotics, particularly in animals for food, is the main cause of the spread of resistance whereby antibiotics lose their effectiveness, and infections become untreatable, leading to what many scientists call…

Max Goldberg continues his tale of photographing whales, sea lions, and other wildlife in Cabo Hardly anyone got any sleep the night before our fourth day on the National Geographic trip to the coast of Mexico, because we were too excited about the next day’s activities. Before we went to bed, we were briefed on what we were going to do: swim with sea lions. We woke up, had breakfast, and got in the boats for a little tour around the sea lion colony. The first thing I noticed was…

By Steven Spence guān guān jū jiū ‘Fair, fair,’ cry the ospreys 关 关 雎 鸠 zài hé zhī zhōu On the island in the river. 在 河 之 洲 (Opening lines of the famous Chinese poem 关雎 Guān jū [1]) A Bird of Many Names Depending on where you live, the bird pictured here may be called an osprey, a fish hawk, a river hawk, a sea hawk, or even a fish eagle! To avoid such confusion, scientists use one name, usually derived from Latin, to describe each species….

Six (Mass) Extinctions in 440 Million Years All things must pass. But the idea that a species could go extinct is a relatively new one, first proposed by anatomist Georges Cuvier in a presentation in Paris in 1796 in a lecture on the extinction of the mastodon, then thought by some to still be roaming the ill-explored western reaches of North America. –American Museum of Natural History Shelf Life is a collection of videos for curious minds—opening doors, pulling out drawers, and taking the lids off some of…

By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore Have you ever heard of the Ōlulu plant? What about the vernal pool tadpole shrimp or Fender’s blue butterfly? These are the lesser known species among the almost 1,600 currently listed in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that require long-term intervention strategies to ensure their survival. Despite numerous success stories, it is becoming more difficult to recover species. The ESA is beset by persistent and pervasive threats to species, pressures from climate change, uneven distribution of funding among species, and a rapidly growing list of species…

By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore Since the turn of the century, we’ve already been gripped by three major outbreaks of new diseases—SARS in China, MERS in the Middle East, and Ebola in Africa—that have had devastating social and economic effects. Wouldn’t it be helpful if we could predict where the next emerging infectious disease is likely to occur? Now, we are a step closer. Scientists have mapped high-risk regions, termed hotspots, for the transmission of viruses from bats to humans, based on several driving factors including bushmeat hunting and population density. “We…

By Kate Stone Long ago, snakes lost their legs. Now, a fresh clue as to how and why has been found deep in an ancient snake’s inner ear. Leglessness is not what makes a snake a snake. As this article explains, it is the flexible, unhinged jaw that distinguishes a snake from a legless lizard. And yet, developing legs only to lose them may seem like evolution in reverse. A 90 million-year-old snake skull is giving researchers vital clues about how snakes lost their legs as they evolved. Comparisons between…

By Jonathan Trinastic @jptrinastic If you enjoy turkey this Thanksgiving, take a moment to think not about the bird on your plate but rather the birds outside your home. With increasing urbanization taking away more natural habitat, local wildlife is having difficulty finding food. Bird feeders have become a popular way for homeowners to help local wildlife and contribute to conservation efforts. But are these feeders, borne of good intentions, actually helping or hurting wild birds? A recent study has enlisted the help of Canadian citizens to find out. Feeding the…

By Kate Stone In the world of mammals, parental stress can have a lifelong impact on offspring. Elephants born into stressful situations grow up to have fewer offspring and age faster, researchers at the University of Sheffield have found. Scientists discovered that Asian elephants born to mothers with high stress levels grow up quickly, but then produce significantly fewer offspring in their lifetime.The research team also found that those animals born under stressful conditions had their lives cut short by premature old age. “Poor early life conditions have been linked…

By Max Goldberg, Contributing Photographer Grazing Grizzly Bears: This is the second installment of wildlife photographer Max Goldberg’s latest Alaskan Adventure. After spending a few days at Brooks Lodge, my father and I went back to Anchorage, Alaska, and took three flights to our next destination: the Natural Habitat Ursus. The Ursus is an old crab–fishing boat converted into a floating home–from–home, and our base for the next week. Every morning, we would eat breakfast, put on our waders, get into a skiff, and go to shore looking for bears. …

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